President's Address. 303 



to consider the matters of larger policy which are so frequently 

 brought before it. 



It soon became evident that no satisfactory Standing Orders 

 securing these advantages could be drawn up which would not be in 

 some way or other inconsistent with the Statutes at present in opera- 

 tion. It was accordingly resolved to modify the Statutes ; and this 

 has been done by giving to certain Statutes a more general form 

 tlian that in which they have for a long time appeared, so that such 

 alterations of detail as may from time to time seem desirable may 

 be effected by changes in the Standing Orders only, without inter- 

 fering with the Statutes. I gladly avail myself of this opportunity 

 of acknowledging the great help which the Council received from 

 Mr. A. B. Kempe, in respect to the many legal points which arose 

 in connection with the change of Statutes. A copy of the Statutes, 

 as amended during the present session, as well as of the Standing 

 Orders adopted, will be found in the Year-book, which has been 

 instituted by one of the new Standing Orders, and which will be pub- 

 lished each year, as soon after the Anniversary Meeting as possible. 



The International Conference called to consider the desirability 

 and possibility of compiling and publishing, by international co- 

 operation, a Complete Catalogue of Scientific Literature, was duly 

 held ; and the Society may be congratulated on the successful issue 

 of a meeting, to the preparations for which a special International 

 Catalogue Committee, appointed by, and acting under the authority 

 of, the Council, had devoted much time and labour. The Conference 

 met in the apartments of the Society on July 14, 15, 16, and 17, 

 under the presidency of the Bight Hon. Sir J. Gorst, Vice-President 

 of the Committee of Council on Education, and was attended 

 by forty- one delegates, representing nearly all countries interested 

 in science. The Society was represented by the Senior Secretary, 

 Professor Armstrong (Chairman of the International Catalogue 

 Committee), Mr. Norman Lockyer, Dr. L. Mond, and Professor 

 Riicker. Four other Fellows of the Society, General Strachey, Dr. 

 D. Grill, Professor Liversidge, and Mr. R. Trimen were among the 

 delegates appointed by the Indian and Colonial Governments. 



The Conference resolved that it was desirable to compile and 

 publish a catalogue of the nature suggested in the original circular 

 issued by the Royal Society, the administration being carried out by 

 a Central International Bureau, under the direction of an Inter- 

 national Council, with an arrangement that each of such countries 

 as were willing to do so, should, by some national organisation, 

 collect and prepare for the Central Bureau all the entries belonging 

 to the scientific literature of the country. It was further resolved 

 that the language of the catalogue should be English, and a proposal 

 that the Central Bureau should be placed in London was carried by 



